When You Break
by flipomatic
Summary: "We can't face Ruby until we're a team again. It's not her job to pick up our pieces."


Sometimes Yang wondered how many hours she'd spent staring out the window. How much time had she wasted stewing in her own failures? The answer would be far too much.

She told herself she couldn't help it. Bad things happened, and she needed time to recover.

First she was framed for breaking Mercury's leg. She'd always suspected his group was up to something, but didn't have any concrete reasons. Something about the way they talked to people made them seem fake.

They were responsible for Penny's death. Yang wasn't particularly close to the odd girl, but Ruby… No, she didn't want to think about Ruby.

Grimm attacked the city not long after, and Yang thrust herself into the fighting. She found Blake and… No, she wasn't thinking about that either.

She didn't know what happened while she was unconscious, but when she woke up everything had changed.

Pyrrha, the invincible girl, was murdered. She challenged Cinder and lost her life.

Weiss had been hauled away by her father. He dragged her to Atlas where she would be safe.

Blake was gone. Sun said she ran as soon as Yang was loaded into the evacuation ship. He called after her, but she didn't look back.

This was a topic Yang was willing to think about. She felt rage bubble up in her belly, bringing a familiar warmth. Being angry was easy.

Even after dwelling on it for over a month, she still couldn't believe that Blake just left. Did almost a year of partnership not mean anything to her? Yang guessed not. She clenched her remaining fist, her aura flaring slightly.

Her anger was familiar, but it also hurt in a way she couldn't explain. It wasn't a physical pain, though she had more than her fair share of that. It was more like a force that kept her tied to the window. Every time she thought of getting out of bed and put one foot on the ground to stand, it snapped into place.

"You can't do anything." Yang's trembling form seemed to say. "You couldn't save Pyrrha, couldn't keep your team together, couldn't stop Ruby from leaving." The last one echoed the loudest and ultimately forced Yang's gaze back out the window.

Ruby was gone too.

She went off towards Haven to search for Cinder. She still wanted to save the world.

Yang watched her go without a word.

* * *

For a couple months Weiss tolerated living back home in Atlas. She got to see Winter more, which was nice, but she had to put up with her father, which was less nice. Also, there was the matter of her team. She'd known them for less than a year, but Weiss missed them. She'd heard about Pyrrha before she left, but with the CCT down she had no way of contacting anyone outside of Atlas.

Weiss wondered how Yang was coping with her injury, and if Blake and Ruby were holding it together without her. She doubted it.

As fall changed to winter Weiss started to get antsy. Sure she was safe in Atlas, but she wasn't doing anything. Hiding away only helped herself.

With that thought in mind, Weiss packed a travel bag. She needed to go back to her team and keep working as a huntress.

It didn't take her long to gather her belongings, and there was only one person she wanted to say goodbye to.

When Weiss entered Winter's room the older woman smiled softly. "I was wondering when you would leave."

"I'm going to find my team." Weiss squared her shoulders. "They need me, whether they like it or not."

"And just how are you going to do that?" Winter asked coldly with one eyebrow raised.

"I have enough saved up to take a ship to Patch." Weiss ran one hand over her right pocket. "That's where Ruby and Yang are from."

Winter watched her for a moment while weighing her options. She came to a decision and grabbed something from her desk. It was her wallet.

"For your journey." Winter pulled out a large sum of cash, offering it to Weiss.

"You know I can't accept that." Weiss muttered, her eyes cast toward the floor.

"Think of it as a gift." Winter forced the money into Weiss's hands. "Stay safe." She opened her arms for a hug, and Weiss returned the embrace.

"I will." With one last wave Weiss made her exit. She left the grounds unnoticed and boarded a ship to Patch.

* * *

Yang was sitting in her same old spot by the window when she heard her Dad talking to someone. She couldn't make out what there were saying, but they seemed to be getting louder.

"in here." Yang only caught the last part of Taiyang's sentence as he opened the door to her room. "Yang, you have a visitor."

Her heart raced; what if it was Blake? But no, that sounded too good to be true.

Weiss stepped into the room with a neutral expression. Yang stared at her without saying anything and not knowing where to start. Weiss didn't speak either, and Taiyang glanced back and forth between them.

"I'll be in the kitchen if you need me." He settled on saying before leaving and shutting the door behind him.

"Where are Blake and Ruby?" Weiss finally found her voice.

"Gone." Yang's voice cracked from disuse.

"You mean?" Weiss's voice cracked for an entirely different reason.

"Blake ran." Yang scowled up at the ceiling. "The day of the battle she just took off."

"And Ruby?" Weiss stepped further into the room.

"She went looking for Cinder." If Yang could've, she would've punched something. "I haven't seen her in over a week."

"You didn't want to go with her?" The sisters were inseparable at Beacon, Yang not tagging along was strange. Considering her injury it wasn't as surprising as it could've been, but Yang wasn't the type to let her sister go on a quest without her.

"You don't think I wanted to?!" Yang's eyes flared red. "I couldn't! I can't even get out of bed on my own!" Tears dripped down her flushed cheeks.

"Well we've got to do something." Weiss wasn't good at comforting others. She didn't know how to help Yang. What she did know was that she came to Patch looking for team RWBY, and all she found was one broken Y. A year ago she would've struck off without them, but after all they'd been through she couldn't imagine doing so now.

"I'm not doing anything. It's all over, Weiss," Yang said with a heavy sigh.

"You're wrong." Weiss pointed one finger at Yang. "It's not over. Our teammate is somewhere out there, and our leader needs our help. Nothing is over."

"But Weiss, I can't…" Yang protested weakly.

"Not with that attitude!" Weiss, in a surprising fit of anger, yanked Yang's sheets away from her. "Yang Xiao Long, you are one of the strongest people I know. I will not allow you to sit here and feel sorry for yourself."

"Shut up!" Yang raised her fist. "Don't you think I'd have done something by now if I could?"

"No, that's why we're doing it together." Weiss pushed Yang's sheets all the way to the end of the bed. "Our first step is to get a prosthetic for you."

"We can't afford that." Yang frowned. Military grade prosthetics cost more than Taiyang made in a year of working, so there was no way the family could afford one.

"I know a person." Weiss smiled for the first time since her arrival. "Who owes you for wrongfully disqualifying our team from the tournament."

"I guess that'll work." Yang shrugged.

"After that, we'll look for Blake." They would probably have to go back to Beacon to find her, Weiss thought to herself.

"What about Ruby?" Their leader would certainly be happier to see them than their faunus teammate.

"We can't face Ruby until we're a team again. It's not her job to pick up our pieces."

Yang couldn't argue with that; she'd already caused Ruby enough trouble. "Alright." She nodded. "Though there's still the issue of me standing up."

"I'll help you." Weiss sat next to Yang's good arm. She pulled the blonde's arm around her shoulder as Yang placed both feet on the cold ground. "On the count of three." Weiss counted down and the pair stood up together.

Yang wobbled a bit, but managed to stay on her feet. Her heart panged. "This will fail like all the rest," echoed through her brain. But when she glanced over at Weiss that thought slipped away, replaced with a smidge of the optimism she'd lost.

Yang mostly leaned against the wall while Weiss packed, and once everything was ready she glanced back out her window. The view looked different standing up, no longer enough to capture her attention.

Even though Yang had to lean heavily on Weiss, the pair said goodbye to Taiyang and walked out the door to start their journey anew.


End file.
